It was interesting listening to the wind as we drifted off to sleep. You could hear the sound of the wind in the distance and then 10-15 seconds later the wind would reach us. It was just a gentle wind and felt cooling against our skin as we stared up to a perfect night sky. As Samir out, our 5 million star hotel!
Around 2:00am there were a few drops of rain and we wondered if we would have to move inside the camp. Fortunately it was only a few drops, which were actually very welcome, so we didn't need to move. The wind had been blowing all night, but some time around 3:30am the wind really intensified and we started getting a decent sand blasting. Undeterred we simply adjusted our sheets to cover our heads and toughed it out - not that it was really tough. We only slept in short bursts, but it was great being out under the stars.
We got up at 5:30am hoping to witness an amazing sunrise. Sadly that didn't eventuate as there was too much cloud cover. So instead we jumped back on our camels and headed back to our bags. The ride felt better today, a little more comfortable for some reason? Back at the Kasbah there was time for breakfast before heading back out on the road towards our next destination, Todra Gorge.
I absolutely loved the Sahara. It's been a definite highlight of the trip so far.
We stopped a couple of times along the way, one to visit one of the many fossil museums-cum-shops and another to look at a local irrigation system. We're all feeling a little tired after last night, so there's not an awful lot of enthusiasm at either of these stops. Our next stop is for nous nous which everyone is very excited about. Some caffeine is exactly what we need to recharge the batteries.
As we move further away from the desert, the terrain slowly changes to become more stoney and rocky. There are stands of date palms scattered around, but in general the land is not useable.
We pass through a town with some very flash looking homes and a load of half-finished homes, the latter of which is very common to see across Morocco. The town is home to a number of quite wealthy families who mainly live elsewhere, such as the Rabat or Casablanca or even further afield such as Europe. This is sort of a retirement area, but the reason a lot of the homes aren't finished, is that part of Islamic faith and the teaching of the Quran is that whilst it's ok to take a loan from a bank, it is forbidden to take out a loan from the bank and pay interest. So it's very common to see partly built homes which are only added to as the family earns enough money to build.
Our lunch stop for the day was the town of Tinejdad at the el Khorbat restaurant.
Tinejdad, which means 'nomad', used to be a major trading post between the Berber and Saharan tribes back in the day of caravans . The town is still home to amazing Ksar el-Khorbat.
Looking like a single building on the outside, a Ksar is a huge complex which is home to a large number of families. Narrow lanes, walking only, criss cross at the bottom, with entranceways into the homes that sit above. On the rooftop it's possible to walk across the whole complex and in each corner there are watch towers - not in use anymore, but can be used for meeting friends, or reading or drinking coffee.
Natural light flows in down to the alleyways through open courtyards which also illuminates the homes. These days, they have been renovated to include electricity into the homes.
The Ksar is built out of Palm tree trunks and mud and hay. As you walk through the alleyways and look up, it's easy to see evidence of the pressure on some of the trunks, which are buckling under the weight. We saw a couple of alleyways that had completely collapsed due to the weight, time and neglect, which makes us a little wary of stopping too long.
It's a remarkably big area and is still home to around 100 families. Back in its heyday it was home to hundreds of families.
On several of the hills that we pass we see some Arabic words made out of white painted stones. The words mean Allah, Country & King - very patriotic bunch. We also see loads of symbols of the Berber people which is like a U on top of an upside down U with a vertical line running through them both. Berbers even have their own flag of three horizontal sections of blue, yellow and red.
We arrived at our hotel, Kasbah Taborihte around 4:30pm, ready for a shower to get rid of the sand that has lodged itself in every conceivable orifice. The hotel is situated in the Todra Gorge, on the opposite side of the river to the road, with foot access across a bridge being the only way to get to the hotel. Unfortunately a flood ripped through the gorge about seven months ago destroyed the bridge, so they have a very makeshift one in place at the moment, which wobbles and sings about as we walked across.
We're all a little but excited about this hotel because it has a pool!
After a quick shower to get rid of the sand, we head straight for the pool and spend an hour or so just swimming and lazing around. It's a nice break after the busyness of the last couple of days.
The hotel doesn't sell alcohol, so Samir arranges for one of the hotel workers to go in to town to buy some beer and wine for us. Sending a non-drinker to buy alcohol was probably not the smartest idea and turned out to be a bit of a challenge for him. The poor bugger came back with warm Heineken and unfortunately the freezer isn't very cold, so it's warm beer all round. And he also came back with red wine instead of white, which was a bit of a mission to swap.
We're here for two nights, with the only thing planned being a four-five hour walk up the gorge planned for tomorrow morning. Lounging around by a pool for half a day sounds like a bloody good idea to me!
Dinner was great out on the veranda overlooking the gorge. We've got a few of our group with upset stomachs so are taking it easy. Nonetheless, everyone is there to enjoy the view and conversation. The beer and wine situation finally got resolved, so we continued on after dinner with a few drinks before calling it a day.
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